“My three-year-old son thinks I’m a firefighter, which I like to think I am, too.” Joseph Sevilla, told reporters during the Los Angeles wildfires. Sevilla is a firefighter, but he also is incarcerated. He wears an orange uniform on the job and earns just $5.80 to $10.24 for an entire 24-hour shift. Non-incarcerated firefighters, conversely, earn $42.36 per hour.
California deployed over 1,000 incarcerated firefighters to fight the Los Angeles wildfires in January. Images of these incarcerated firefighters, and the stories they shared from the frontlines, captivated global attention and drew criticism. Incarcerated firefighters earn less pay, are more likely to get injured, and can rarely secure firefighting positions once released due to their criminal record.
These brave workers forced us to confront a harsh reality: people in prison are risking their lives for so little pay. How is this possible? A loophole in the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime.”
Ironically, two months prior, California voted against a ballot measure to close this loophole also found in the state constitution. Ballot measures are instrumental to ending forced labor in prison. Courts offer another avenue. But it is hard to bring successful lawsuits because of the 13th Amendment, requiring creative litigation strategies or changes in state constitutions. Prison labor litigation recently has had some exciting wins and unsurprising setbacks. This update on the...
Fact Check Fact Check From misinformation around the current military escalations between Israel and Iran to false claims of Air India plane crash survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh being arrested on s...